5.  The applicant was born in 1960.
6.  In March 2003 the State authorities of Belarus arrested Mr D., a former Deputy President of the Belarus Customs Committee for neglect of his official duties. The applicant was involved in the case as a witness. The arrest of Mr D. was part of the campaign organised by the Republic of Belarus on “combating corruption and offences committed by public officials.”
7.  According to the applicant, in the autumn of 2004 the investigating authorities put pressure on him to testify against Mr D., stating that if he refused he would also be prosecuted.
8.  In December 2004 the applicant went to Zhytomyr, Ukraine, to visit his grandmother. While he was there he had a heart attack, underwent in-hospital treatment for four months and was eventually declared “second category disabled” by the local medical commission. According to the applicant, his wife informed the investigating authorities of Belarus where he was staying in Ukraine and about his illness.
9.  In the beginning of 2005 the applicant obtained a residence permit from the Ukrainian authorities.
10.  On 8 June 2005 criminal proceedings were initiated against the applicant in Belarus for abuse of power during his employment in 2002-2003 as a customs officer under the third paragraph of Article 424 of the Criminal Code of Belarus, for which the maximum punishment was ten years' imprisonment. The same day the investigating authorities of Belarus decided that the applicant had absconded and should be detained
11.  On 7 July 2005 the Belarusian authorities issued an international arrest warrant.
12.  On 29 July 2005 police officers from the Department of Combating Organised Crime of the Ministry of the Interior apprehended the applicant in Zhytomyr. He was detained in Zhytomyr's Temporary Detention Centre (“the ITU”).
13.  On 1 August 2005 the applicant was brought before the Korolyovsky District Court of Zhytomyr (“the Korolyovsky Court”), which ordered the his provisional detention for ten days.
14.  On 3 August 2005 the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine (“the GPO”) received a request by fax from the General Prosecutor's Office of Belarus for the applicant's extradition. The original version of the request and the accompanying documents were received on 12 August 2005.
15.  On 4 August 2005 the applicant complained of a headache and dizziness and an ambulance was called for him. He was diagnosed with hypertension and given medicaments to lower his blood pressure. The ambulance team concluded that the applicant's condition did not preclude his staying in the ITU.
16.  On 8 August 2005 the Korolyovsky Court decided that the applicant should be further detained for a period of one month to ensure his extradition to Belarus.
17.  On 16 August 2005 the GPO decided that the applicant should be extradited to Belarus. It gave orders to the State Department on Enforcement of Sentences to proceed with the applicant's extradition.
18.  On 19 August 2005 the applicant's representatives appealed to the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv (“the Pechersky Court”) against the decision on the applicant's extradition. They maintained that the prosecution of the applicant was part of a politically motivated campaign against some senior custom officers in order to demonstrate to the people of Belarus that there was an ongoing “fight against corruption”. They also noted that the applicant had previously been questioned as a witness in the case against Mr D., a former Deputy President of the Belarus Customs' Committee, and that his refusal to testify against him was another reason for his criminal prosecution. They further maintained that the decision on extradition had been taken by the Deputy Prosecutor General, and not the Prosecutor General as required by law.
19.  On 22 August 2005, due to refurbishment of the Zhytomyr ITU, the applicant was transferred to the Chernyakhivsky ITU
20.  On 23 August 2005 the GPO suspended the extradition, in view of the proceedings pending before the Pechersky District Court.
21.  On 26 August 2005 the Zhytomyr Regional Court of Appeal upheld the resolution of 8 August 2005. On the same date, the applicant had a second heart attack and was transferred to the Central City Hospital of Zhytomyr, where he stayed, under police supervision, until 8 September 2005.
22.  On 2 September 2005 the Pechersky Court allowed the applicant's appeal against the GPO's decision to extradite him and prohibited the applicant's extradition to Belarus. In particular, it stated that the decision to extradite the applicant had been given by the Deputy Prosecutor General, and not the Prosecutor General himself as required by Ukrainian law. It also stated that there was a risk of unlawful prosecution of the applicant by the State authorities of Belarus in order to obtain testimonies from him against the customs officials and that the applicant's extradition would significantly worsen his state of health.
23.  By 8 September 2005 the applicant was released. He remained in hospital until 13 October 2005 but was no longer guarded by the police.
24.  On 16 September 2005 the GPO appealed against the decision of 2 September 2005. They noted that there was no evidence that the criminal proceedings against the applicant in Belarus were politically motivated or related to the applicant's political views. Furthermore, they maintained that they could not have taken the applicant's state of health into account since his health had deteriorated on 26 August 2005 while the decision on his extradition had been taken on 16 August 2005. They also noted that in their original complaint to the Pechersky Court the applicant's representatives had not referred to the applicant's state of health either. They contended that the GPO had acted within their competence in deciding on the applicant's extradition while the court had no competence to review their decision on the applicant's extradition. They also noted that the applicant and the first instance court referred to the European Convention on Extradition 1957 while the applicant's extradition was governed by the CIS Convention on Legal Assistance and Legal Relations in Civil, Family and Criminal Matters 1993 (“the Minsk Convention”).
25.   On 13 October 2005 the applicant was referred to a specialised neurosurgery hospital in Kyiv for medical treatment. However, he failed to keep his appointment. According to the Government, since that date the applicant has been in hiding and his whereabouts are not known to them.
26.  On 10 November 2005 the Kyiv City Court of Appeal quashed the resolution of the Pechersky Court of 2 September 2005. It noted that the applicant's extradition was governed by the Minsk Convention and not by the European Convention on Extradition, since Ukraine and Belarus are both parties to the former agreement but not to the latter. It further noted that the first-instance court had totally ignored the arguments of the GPO about the lack of any political motivation behind the criminal prosecution against the applicant and had not substantiated its conclusion on “a risk of unlawful prosecution of the applicant by the State authorities of Belarus in order to obtain testimonies from him against the customs officials”. It considered that the above conclusion, as well as some other information (on the applicant's illness, for instance), had led the first-instance court to commit a serious legal error. The appellate court finally noted that the Pechersky Court had had no jurisdiction to review the decision on the applicant's extradition, given that decisions on extradition were exclusively within competence of the GPO.